Your name is Aarbron, member of the infernal troops led by Maletoth, lord of the underworld, scourge of all mankind. You are a powerful demonic warrior at the service of the dark forces. A prominent member of Maletoth's ever growing army, you are an unstopable killing machine. With you on hell's side, mankind is doomed.

Tonight is a special night, it's sacrifice night. Hundreds of begging humans are taken before the altar where they will perish. Impassible, you attend to the execution of these wretched beings. You despise their crying, their weakness, their pathetic existence... until you watch the last one of them all die. That face, that look, that voice... there is something familiar in them. The death of this insignificant human before your eyes evokes old memories, forgotten memories. Now you remember... that human was your father. Suddenly it all makes sense. You were not born a merciless bloodthirsty creature. Kidnapped at an early age by creatures of the night, you were taken to the Necropolis, Maletoth's dark stronghold. There, through the arcane black magic of the mages loyal to your master's cause, you were morphed into what yu are now, a monstruous minion, a wardog, the puppet of a cruel beast. But now it's time for revenge. You won't rest until you have spilt the blood of Maletoth and his servants. The hunt starts tonight.Play the role of a renegade demon seeking revenge with this wonderful game for ZX Spectrum which mixes beat'em up, shoot'em up, maze and platform game styles in a mephistophelian odyssey in which you must kill or be killed. It's the hour of the beast!__________________________________________________________

In Shadow of the Beast you must go through you 6 levels facing several Maletoth's minions. Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 offer a game style which mixes bidimensional side scrollingbeat’em up, platform and maze. Level 5 is a bidimensional side scrolling shoot'em up.

In levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 you will be able to move left or right, jump, crouch, throw punches, low punches and flying kicks and shoot when you've got some magic power or weapon. You will also be able to go up and down ladders, activate mechanisms and pick up various objects, like keys, torches or spanners, which will allow you to access certain areas. In level 5 you will be able to move in every direction and shoot.

Along your dangerous adventure you will have to fight different enemies. Giant bats, monstruous cobras, sinister eyeballs, flying squids, various species of winged creatures, colossal spiders, numerous types of oversized insects, weightless spherical spawns, little biped reptilians with big jaws, huge snake heads that come up from th e floor and ceiling and two different forms of humanoid beasts armed with axes and swords will try to stand in your way. As if that wasn't enough, you will also have to be careful with the traps that you will find, such as sharp stakes, flying axes, blowtorches, pits, fireballs, electric discharges and corrosive drops. If an enemy causes some harm to you or if you fall down from a really high altitude, your energy level will diminish. You will be able to refill your energy by drinking magic potions or destroying chests, funerary monuments or tombs, but beware, some of these can make your energy level shrink.The levels you must overcome are these:

- Level one, the forest. In this first level you must go left and venture into the forest to locate an entrance to an underground lair.- Level two, the cavern. In the labyrinthine cavern you must look for the winged demon and destroy his power orb. If you destroy it, you will btain the power to shoot fireballs, which will be of great help to destroy the creepy war machine that you will find along your way. To come out of the cave you will first need to defeat a fearsome dragon with the appearance of a dinosaur with your bare fists. After you defeat this guardian, you will be able to use the well that will allow you to go ouside. - Level three, the way to the castle. Once on the surface, you will have to advance rightwards eliminating every evil creature that you find on your way until you reach the outside of the castle. Look for the door and get inside Maletoth's stronghold.

- Level four, Maletoth's castle. You must go through the castle until you find the chest that holds the weapon with which you will be able to beat the three-headed dragon, the guardian of the access route to the castle's graveyard.

- Level five, the access rute to the graveyard. Equipped with a jetpack and the weapon that you acquired at the castle, you will fly along the lenthy access route to the graveyard shooting your enemies. Be careful, at the end of the journey a horrifying guardian with a long tentacle will try to prevent you from arriving to the graveyard.

- Level six, the castle's graveyard. In this last level you most advance rightwards eliminating your rivals until facing your last enemy, a gigantic Maletoth's ally..

The game ends when you beat the last of Maletoth's minion and you are freed from your curse.

Combining the bidimensional multidirectional scrolling beat'em up, bidimensional side scrolling shoot'em up, maze and platform genres, Shadow of the Beast has it all. Impressing atmosphere and backstory (represented by great introductory splash screens), neat and detailed graphics, smooth movement, well adjusted controls, in game music, high degree of playability, variety of enemies and final bosses... Besides, it's a long game, with a decent amount of levels. Resming, it's a well polished that takes ZX Spectrum capacity to its limit. Probably the best bidimensional side scrolling beat'em up available for ZX Spectrum and one of the most brilliant works for this system.

Highlights:1.- The technical aspects of the game are very well developed. The graphics, movement, animations and in game music are high quality ones.2.- Its atmosphere and backstory are excellent, It's not a game with a mindless or poorly developed story, its creators took this aspect very seriously.3.- Its wide variety of enemies and final bosses. Besides, the design of the monsters is top notch.Could be improved:1.- You sometimes spend too much time running around with nothing interesting happening. 2.- Although there's a wide variety of enemies, they could have been distributed in a better way. It would have been more interesting if each level had had its own enemies, some of them appear in most of the levels.3.- There's too much details in stages and backgrounds in levels 1 and 5 and the result is slightly confusing. Sometimes less is more.